This is a competing continuation grant application for support during the last two years of a five year project. The first three years were devoted to collecting data and preliminary analysis. Support during the last two years will make possible the completion of follow-up examinations and final analysis of results. Mental Illness and normal aging among the very old have been neglected in both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. Yet the very old are an importnat group to study, both because they are an elite who have survived most of their birth cohort, and because aging processes and problems accelerate among them. This project is examining: (1) the epidemiology of organic and functional mental illness among the very old; (2) the consequences of mental illness and normal aging for physical, mental, and social, processes of aging; and for treatment and care; and (3) the differences between the normal and the mentally ill very old in family and social supports, and how they change over time. A representative sample of 300 very old (men 73+ and women 75+) community residents are being given comprehensive physical, psychiatric, and social examinations. They are being classified as normal, as primarily organic mentally impaired, or as primarily functionally impaired. Each person will have two annual follow-up examinations. The annual follow-up examinations will be used to study the consequences of mental illnes. Antecedent information is available on each person from the 1972 survey in which they participated. This 1972 information will be used to study the epidemiology and predictors of mental illness among the sample 10 years later. This project will provide valuable information for mental illness prevention, improved care of the mentally ill, and programs to increase successful aging among the very old. This information will add to the knowledge base of psychiatry, geriatrics, and social gerontology.